TeleEducation for Implementing a Clinical Practice Guideline For Amputees

The publication of a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) is often not enough for its correct use in the field of health care. There are barriers to the implementation of the CPG recommendations, including those related to the lack of knowledge or skills on the part of health service providers. Strategies have been proposed to improve the implementation of the CPGs through interventions with different levels of effectiveness, such as the use of reminders, informative meetings, sending educational material, audits, among others. Some of these interventions can be carried out through Telehealth strategies, that is, with remote services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a Telehealth program to improve the implementation of the Clinical Practice Guideline for diagnosis and preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative treatment of the amputee, the prescription of the prosthesis and comprehensive rehabilitation, through strategies to publicize the recommendations included in the CPG and train doctors, reducing the barriers related to the lack of knowledge of the CPG. For this, two groups of institutions that provide health services in Antioquia will be compared, randomized according to two interventions: the socialization of the recommendations of the CPG for amputees, against a combined strategy of education through a Telehealth platform and the delivery of educational material. Compliance with prioritized recommendations of the CPG will be evaluated, related to surgical techniques, perioperative practices, the prescription of prosthetic components and referral to services that allow the comprehensive rehabilitation of the person with amputation. Additionally, the theoretical knowledge of the doctors of each participating institution before and after the interventions will be evaluated through a written test.

Inclusion Criteria:Hospital providing medium and high complexity services in Antioquia that are linked or linked to the telehealth network of the University of Antioquia.Patients with lower limb amputation due to traumatic, vascular or diabetes mellitus that are treated in the aforementioned institutions.Health professionals who use CPG for people with amputation.Hospitals, patients and professionals who agree to participate in the projectExclusion Criteria:Patients who were amputated for other causes not included in the target population of the CPG, such as cancer and congenital.Amputee patients under 16 years.